Paulin Paris’s Marquetry Paintings continue his exploration of material illusion and symbolic storytelling. They are composed of hand-cut paper that mimics the look and texture of wood veneer, assembled in the spirit of traditional marquetry. As the name suggests, it is not what it appears to be—each work plays with perception, blurring the boundary between surface and substance. Many of these pieces are part of his Words of Wisdom collection, where familiar sayings were paired with emblematic objects, using the language of pattern, material, and metaphor to question how meaning is constructed and reassembled.